Reclaiming your space: Beating messiness

I’ve promised to always be honest on here and, in all painful honesty, I am a messy person. I have a habit of being rather lazy and also to pass up tidying and cleaning in favour of more “productive” jobs. It isn’t good, it isn’t fun and it’s got to change.

I am slowly starting to change this (on my days off work) and I wanted to share my ways of clearing some space.

Ask yourself what you want from your space.
Do you want your space to be a bedroom, an office, a dressing room, a wardrobe, a guest room? begin by asking yourself what kind of room you want it to be and think hard about what features that kind of room has.
Do you want it to have a lot of open space and clear walls? Then maybe you don’t want lots of stuff and shelves all over the walls.

Tough love
This may be the worst part of the whole experience. Where you have to bite the bullet and be painfully honest with yourself about the stuff you need to throw out.
Do you need the big prop sword you never use? Do you need ALL those bottles of perfume you never wear? Is it actually possible that you own too many storage boxes?!
It’s not easy to be 100% straight with yourself at this point, but force yourself through it. Gather up a load of your stuff and put it into two piles, being totally honest. One pile is for stuff you need and actually use, the other is for the charity or junk shop.

Spend a little money
it doesn’t have to be a lot of money, just invest a little into some good cleaning products, the right kind of storage for yourself and maybe a couple DVD folders for the thousands of movies you own.

One of the best things I bought for organising my space was this storage ottoman:

It can be folded flat, but when set up (and with some stuff inside) it also makes a fantastic seat! When I got it, I filled it with stuff and jumped on top of it to see if it would break and (while I WOULD NOT RECOMMENT doing this) it didn’t give way!

Make a list
For messy folks like me, we sometimes need a challenge to make sure we stick to our guns. Maybe keep a list of jobs you have to do, or keep a record of the jobs you to each day.
I own a little red notebook called my ‘task book’ in which I write all the jobs I did that day and how much money I earned that day.

Don’t get mad, get even
You wanted this. You want a tidy room/house and it’ll be worth it in the end. Chores and cleaning can be a pain, but suck it up and make your room perfect, one step at a time.

Slaying the beast
The biggest challenge we’ll face in this process is most likely the “sentimental monster” that creeps up behind you as you look at that Cow Keyring in your hand and whispers “That was an awesome day when you bought that. If you throw that away, you throw the memories away with it”
This voice is a liar and sentimentality should, one, be saved for REALLY special memories, and shouldn’t be on stuff like a cow keyring, unless it holds a LOT of emotional value to you.

Stay on top of it
Like with any war, it’s not just about the one battle. You have to keep winning each battle, and that means staying on top of things and not winning one and then just stepping down. If you do that, your space will go back to just as bad as before. Control your space, keep your stuff in check and don’t just let it slide.

To get my idea, here are a list of Keepers Vs Leavers

Staying Going

This keyring has very strong personal value VS. A cow keyring that won’t actually clip

A box I made myself by hand VS. Some random jewellery boxes I collected

A scarf my best friend bought in Italy VS. A random brown square I knitted